…claim coy sells substandard items, fixes fraudulent discounts
- They’re misrepresenting us – Jumia
- Consumers should seek redress – CPC
Some customers of Jumia Nigeria have accused the e-commerce firm of engaging in under-hand deals.
Specifically, they are claiming that the company has been selling substandard items to them at exorbitant prices and offering deceitful discount rates, in what they have described as a rip-off.
Having survived a liquidity crisis, which forced two major players in the e-commerce segment to lay off staff and shut operations, Jumia may witness another setback, following the latest allegations by distraught patrons.
Some of the customers, who spoke with The Point in separate interviews, said that they had petitioned the Consumer Protection Council and the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, on the allegations, a move they believed would lead to sanctions.
In an interview with our correspondent in Lagos, a media practitioner, Mr. Adeleke Ajao, explained that he bought a Y-pad device, a toy, for his daughter and a wrist watch for himself on the Jumia platform at N5,500, last year, only to realise that the same device cost N2,000 in a mall at the Palmgrove area of Lagos and N1,500 at another mall at Berger, another area in Lagos.
All of those are things you need to know to be sure of the quality of product you are buying. That is what we have put in place. We are not in business to dupe people. We are in business to make happy customers, because if our customers are not happy, there is no way we’ll grow
He recalled, “As if that was not enough, the device stopped working a few days after the purchase was done. After lodging several complaints on the standard of the item, the company’s agent stopped picking my calls.
“The wrist watch’s story was bitter and embarrassing. While I bought it at N6,000, my brother-in-law bought the same watch at N3,000 on Konga, another e-commerce platform. I was shocked when I found that it stopped working the first time I wore it accompanying my brother-in-law to a party. After changing the battery two times, without the desired result, a repairer advised me to stop wasting money on it, that it was substandard. My brother-in-law’s watch still works.”
Another Jumia patron, Mr. Benjamin Obarole, who is based in Lokoja, Kogi State, told our correspondent over the telephone that he purchased a Quicktell mobile phone on the platform at N20,500 during the 2017 Black Friday promo (November 24) and was disappointed over the way the transaction was handled by the supposedly biggest e-commerce firm in Nigeria.
Aside from paying N20,500 for the phone online, the Managing Director, BenKings Couture, a fashion institute, said he also paid a sum of N800 for home delivery. To his dismay, the item that was supposed to be delivered to his doorstep along Stadium Road, Anyigba in the state capital (Lokoja), within 20 days did not get to him until January 5, 2018, about 41 days after the purchase.
He said, “After paying for home delivery, the phone was dropped at the firm’s outlet in Anyigba and an agent called me from the outlet to come and pick my item. As if that was not enough, I found that the item delivered was a version lesser than what I purchased online. Within five days, it refused to charge and I later found that the battery had gone bad.
“The company has taken us for fools for too long and this is the time for us to say ‘no’ to the menace, and defend ourselves as regulatory authorities have failed to protect us. If CPC fails to respond proactively to our petitions; we will come together as a group and charge the company to court.”
Founder of The Legal Diary, Mr. Joseph Ogunmodede, also explained that he bought a new battery for a Toshiba laptop on Jumia with the hope of getting the best, especially with the impression they gave him that it was at a discounted price.
He said, “To my utmost dismay, it was a China Battery that was delivered and I later found out the ‘discounted price’ of the China battery was N500 higher than original’s. I was shocked when I went to Balogun market, Lagos, with a friend and found that the company sends its agents to the wholesale or retail sellers of commodities at big markets, and they in turn snap the commodities and post the pictures online.
“When people make an order, they go to these shops to get them, add their profit and still leave us under the delusion that we are getting a discount.”
An accountant, Ms. Toyin Ogun, bought a power bank at a discounted price of N7,000 and a wristwatch at a discounted price of N6,000, when both products were in fact N5,000 and N4,000 respectively.
She said, “After buying the power bank, I later saw the same somewhere else for N5,000. Since then, I resolved not to buy anything from Jumia again. A friend also added a slim Play Station 4 to his cart on the platform, hoping the price, N96,000, was going to reduce during Black Friday but it did not. While Jumia claimed it slashed the price by over 20 per cent during black Friday, it remained at N96,000.”
According to them, it is wise to sue Jumia and claim damages before hundreds of thousands Nigerians fall victim of its alleged fraudulent acts, a development that could erode foreign investors’ confidence in the segment, which has been begging for investment since some of the indigenous firms could not survive the 2015-2017 liquidity crisis.
ACTIONS MISLEADING, UNLAWFUL- CPC
The customers’ action might not be out of place as the alleged actions of the e-commerce firm contradict the stipulation of the section 11 of the 1992 Consumer Protection Council Act, which says, “Any person who issues or aids in issuing any wrong advertisement about a consumer item, is guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a fine of N50,000 or to imprisonment of five years or to both such fine and imprisonment.”
Also, the Section 12 of the Act states, “Any person who provides any service or proffers any information or advertisement thereby causing injury or loss to a consumer, is guilty of an offence under this Decree and liable on conviction to N50,000 fine or to five years’ imprisonment or to both such fine and imprisonment.”
Meanwhile, the Director-General, CPC, Mr. Babatunde Irukera, who spoke to our correspondent in Lagos, explained that the practice of bloating discount prices and selling substandard products was both misleading and illegal, especially when the items were sold at exorbitant prices or when patrons were not fully educated on the features before purchase.
Though, the CPC boss admitted that the Section 12 of the CPC Act of 1992 was very tricky because it was difficult to characterise or establish it as harm, he argued that the Section 2(i) might prove more helpful as it empowered the council to “ensure that consumers’ interests receive due consideration at the appropriate forum and provide redress to obnoxious practices or unscrupulous exploitation of consumers by companies, firms, trade, association or individual.
Irukera said, “It is the specific function of the council to take legal actions on such issues but the way we do that is that, we have to literally investigate, enquire and look into their intention, because it is an objective test. It is a totally different thing to say there is a manufacturer-suggested retail price. That’s just a suggestion. So we have to look at the market dynamics and all the surrounding facts to establish that the advert is unscrupulous.”
PATRONS DON’T UNDERSTAND OUR OPERATIONS – JUMIA
However, the Head, Public Relations and Communications, Jumia Nigeria, Mr. Kayode Kolawole, blamed the allegations on lack of public understanding of his company’s operations.
He said the special promotions should not be confused with ordinary sales and that most of them were done, based on first-come-first-served basis.
He stressed that the benefit might go only to one person and should not be seen as the original pricing adopted for the product.
He said, “It was a strategy on our part to drive people to the website and search for what they might find, and then we reward one lucky person. So maybe when we put out communications like that, people misunderstand them to mean Jumia is selling a phone for N2,850 and when we get to their website, we find out it is a lie.
“One of the things we have put in place to ensure that customers get value for money and are not cheated is that we have hundreds of competing sellers. All of those are things you need to know to be sure of the quality of product you are buying.
That is what we have put in place. We are not in business to dupe people. We are in business to make happy customers, because if our customers are not happy, there is no way we’ll grow.”
